Hot Springs Bathhouses

There is a lot of history around the Hot Springs here. In the early days, people would come to the springs and stay in tents and shacks. The US Government saw the need to protect the area, so it became a Federal Reservation, then a National Park. The heyday was in the late 1800's, when the current bathhouses were built, tapering down by the end of World War II. The supposed healing properties of the hot springs brought baseball teams, gangsters, speakeasies, and horse racing. The government built an Army and Navy hospital here to use the springs for treatment.

The National Park Visitor Center is in the old Fordyce bathhouse and gives a great picture of the state of the healing arts in the day. Electrotherapy baths They used to do mercury rubs along with steam heat from the hot springs as a cure for syphilis until penicillin came along.

The spring water is hot, but isn't particularly full of minerals or anything else magical, so once hot tubs came about, there wouldn't be that much need to travel to Hot Springs just to soak in a hot bath.

Two of the bathhouses still provide services. The Buckstaff provides a more traditional Hot Springs experience. The Quapaw provides four pools of different temperatures for a reasonable price and more modern, upscale massages, facials, and baths.